No Miracle at McKechnie, Marauders Win 9-2

BRADENTON, FL – The Bradenton Marauders, Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, clinched a series victory over the Fort Myers Miracle Thursday, 9-2 at McKechnie Field.

A pitcher’s duel early, Ramon Cabrera finally broke the scoring deadlock with a double in the fourth.  He scored on a Carlos Paulino single two batters later for a 1-0 advantage.  The Miracle responded the nest half inning, however, with an inside-the-park homerun by Dan Rohlfing.  It’s the second inside-the-parker against the Marauders in two weeks after Matt Szczur had one for Daytona during the last homestand.

The game was blown open in the sixth inning with a seven-run Marauders inning.  Eleven batters hit in the frame, begun by a single by Cabrera.  He advanced to second when Evan Chambers walked.  Elevys Gonzalez then reached on a sacrifice bunt attempt where nobody covered first and the bases were loaded. Carlos Paulino then hit into a run-scoring fielder’s choice where no out was recorded to go up 2-1  It was 3-1 after a sacrifice fly from Kelson Brown and 4-1 after a Cole White single. 

The starter Tom Stuifbergen was then lifted for reliever Clint Dempster, who allowed a three-run homerun to David Rubinstein on the fourth pitch he threw.  That made it 7-1.  Another run would score after and Adalberto Santos double and error that allowed him the score.  It was 8-1.

Fort Myers got a run back in the seventh on a double by Angel Morales, but Bradenton countered with a Paulino double in the seventh.  He finished with three knocked in.

The win goes to Brandon Cumpton, his first.  He went six and allowed one run on four hits.  It’s the sixth straight game a Marauders starter has gone at least six innings, the longest such streak for the team this season.